


Keys To The Future (Bucky and the Stars)

by Bucket_Burns



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: ? - Freeform, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky is from Indiana, Bucky loves space, Fluff, How Do I Tag, M/M, Not Beta Read, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Short & Sweet, Supersoliders in Space, first fic i've posted, friends to soulmates, glimpses of life, it's just a cute lil thing, literally just a twitter thread, little twitter fic, that's why the paragraphs are like this, wordcount under 1000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:13:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21829540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bucket_Burns/pseuds/Bucket_Burns
Summary: Bucky has always hoped that the stars would teach him what life is all about, if he just got close enough to see them.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	Keys To The Future (Bucky and the Stars)

**Author's Note:**

> This is literally just a story I posted originally as a thread on Twitter, so the paragraphs are just each tweet.

When Bucky was a kid, his mom told him the stars were keys to the future. His dad said they were messages from thousands of years ago, guiding him and showing him the reason to keep going. Bucky believed if he just looked close enough, he would see the reason he was there.

When Bucky and his family moved from Indiana to New York, Bucky couldn't see the stars as much, but he remembered the shapes they made well. He told Steve that one day he was gonna get there. He was gonna go to space and the stars would tell him where he was meant to be.

When Bucky was an adult, the stars brought him peace, kept him optimistic. When Steve would get sick, or the money would get low, Bucky would sit on the fire escape and he would look up at the shapes they made in the sky, and reminded himself that they would be okay.

When the war seemed like it would never end, and the death and misery he had seen every day became too much, and he was out in the trenches, feeling cold and alone, the stars made him feel as if there was a purpose to all of this. He just needed to keep going.

Steve and Bucky would sit by the fire when they made camp, the Commandos swapping stories of home and their lives away from the war. They watched the wayward embers float up and fade into the sky. Dugan turned to Steve and Bucky what they would do when the war was over.  
They smiled at each other, and Steve replied simply, "We're going to see the stars." Nobody asked what that meant. It was a nice dream to have, in whatever context it was in. The war crushed so much out of them, it was good to have dreams.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bucky was lost, this new world was so odd to him. It wasn't the technology or the modernism of it all that scared him. He just didn't know how he fit in, where he was supposed to go, what he was supposed to do. He knew that he used to have dreams, but remembering them was too hard.

Steve asked him one day, when he caught Bucky staring too long at a map of the stars in a book he had been reading, if he had thought of the stars recently. Bucky shook his head. "They were important to you." Steve replied simply, a plan formulating in his brain.

A brief request to Tony and the promise that he "owed him big time" was all it took. Steve could feel Bucky's apprehension as they stepped onto the ship, like something out of the science fiction novels Bucky loved back in the day. Steve still had a hard time adapting sometimes.

Tony told them not to look out the windows until he gave them the okay. He always loved the theatrical reveals. Steve and Bucky stayed patiently strapped into their seats. 

"You used to tell me-," Steve started.

"That the stars would tell me where I'm meant to be," Bucky finished.

His smile was small but it was genuine. Steve cared so much, and he was so patient, so thoughtful. Bucky was dubious that any of this would mean anything. He used to be so hopeful. He wished that would come back now. Before too long Tony was giving them the okay.

They unbuckled and made their way to the cockpit, sleek and surrounded on 3 sides by windows. Bucky's breath caught in his throat. They were overwhelming, colors running in rivers across the sky, an incredible array of light, and Bucky could barely breathe.

He stepped up to the window, feeling Steve do the same next to him. His eyes couldn't focus. It was almost too much, too many sensations, too much light. He didn't know where he would find what he was looking for. He didn't even KNOW what he was looking for.

His eyes were drawn instead to Steve and time stopped. His brain replayed flashes of his life, the day he moved to Brooklyn, the day he met the short blonde kid with sparkling eyes and a bloody nose, the night he spent by the fire in a cold forest, his friend steady by his side.

It felt like a film reel that was out of control. Bucky couldn't breathe, couldn't think. The flashes of memories stopped and he was brought back to the one right in front of him. Steve, mouth hanging open, tears on his face and galaxies reflected in his sparkling eyes.

The sudden feeling that he was exactly where he was always supposed to end up was so earth shattering. Decades of not feeling at all had built a dam in his brain and it was crumbling quickly. Bucky cursed himself for ever thinking that he was supposed to be anywhere else.

Of course it was with Steve. It was always with Steve. Tears were running steadily down Bucky's face and he grabbed Steve's hand without a second thought. Steve's head turned, his heart stuttering at the intense emotions in Bucky's eyes. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to.

He just wrapped Bucky in a tight hug, his head resting on Bucky's shoulder and Bucky's on his and they cried, for time lost, for all the pain, for losing each other, for finding each other, for healing, for the future.

They just stayed in each other's arms and silently agreed that Winifred and George Barnes were right. It all seemed so simple now. The universe continued to bring them together, like it knew long before they did that they were each other's future.

**Author's Note:**

> All of my old fics that I've written are gone forever thanks to Tumblr so we're starting from scratch! This is just a little something while I work on a bigger-than-expected Christmas SteveBucky fic, so uhhh watch for that :)


End file.
